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    <center>Scilab Function</center>
    <div align="right">Last update : April 1993</div>
    <p>
      <b>%helps</b> -  Variable defining the path of help directories</p>
    <h3>
      <font color="blue">Description</font>
    </h3>
    <p>
    The global variable <tt>
        <b>%helps</b>
      </tt> is an N x 2 matrix of strings. 
    The kth row of <tt>
        <b>%helps</b>
      </tt>, <tt>
        <b>%helps(k,:)</b>
      </tt> represents
    the kth chapter of the manual and is made of two strings:</p>
    <p>
      <tt>
        <b>%helps(k,1)</b>
      </tt> is the absolute pathname for a help directory.</p>
    <p>
      <tt>
        <b>%helps(k,2)</b>
      </tt> is a title for this help directory.
    For instance, for k=2, we have the graphics chapter 
    <tt>
        <b>%helps(2,:)</b>
      </tt>.</p>
    <p>
    The variable <tt>
        <b>%helps</b>
      </tt> is defined in the Scilab startup
    file <tt>
        <b>SCI+"/scilab.star"</b>
      </tt>.</p>
    <p>
    To add a new help directory, the user should add a row to
    the variable <tt>
        <b>%helps</b>
      </tt>. (One row for each directory).</p>
    <p>
    For instance, <tt>
        <b>%helps=[%helps; "Path-Of-My-Help-Dir","My-Title"];</b>
      </tt>
    enables the Scilab help browser to look for help manual items
    in the directory with pathname "Path-Of-My-Help-Dir".</p>
    <p>
    "My-Title" is then the title of a new help chapter.</p>
    <p>
    A valid help directory must contain:</p>
    <p>
    1- A set of <tt>
        <b>.html</b>
      </tt> files (e.g. <tt>
        <b>item1.html, item2.html</b>
      </tt> etc).
    The <tt>
        <b>.html</b>
      </tt> files are usually built from XML files.</p>
    <p>
    2- A <tt>
        <b>whatis.html</b>
      </tt> file, which must have a special format. Each row
    of the <tt>
        <b>whatis</b>
      </tt> must be as follows:</p>
    <pre>

&lt;BR&gt;&lt;A HREF="item.html"&gt;item&lt;/A&gt; - quick description
   
    </pre>
    <p>
      <tt>
        <b>item</b>
      </tt> is the item of the help, i.e. the command <tt>
        <b>help item</b>
      </tt>
    displays the contents of the file <tt>
        <b>item.html</b>
      </tt>.</p>
    <p>
    The command <tt>
        <b>apropos keyword</b>
      </tt> returns the row(s) of all
    the <tt>
        <b>whatis.html</b>
      </tt> file(s) in which the keyword appears.</p>
    <p>
    On Linux platforms Scilab provides a Makefile for transforming
    <tt>
        <b>.xml</b>
      </tt> pages into <tt>
        <b>.html</b>
      </tt> pages (see SCIDIR/examples/man-examples).</p>
    <h3>
      <font color="blue">See Also</font>
    </h3>
    <p>
      <a href="apropos.htm">
        <tt>
          <b>apropos</b>
        </tt>
      </a>,&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="help.htm">
        <tt>
          <b>help</b>
        </tt>
      </a>,&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="man.htm">
        <tt>
          <b>man</b>
        </tt>
      </a>,&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
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